Ranieri suffers losing return to Italy as Parma continue to toil

Claudio Ranieri's first Serie A game in 10 years ended in defeat when his new side Parma lost 1-0 at home to Sampdoria yesterday. Fabio Quagliarella scored the winner for the visitors, for whom Sergio Volpi also missed a penalty.

Third-placed Palermo slipped up in a 1-1 draw with Chievo. David Di Michele gave the Sicilian club the lead before Victor Obinna equalised on the stroke of half-time. Palermo now trail the leaders, Internazionale, by 20 points and second-placed Roma by six.

Luca Toni scored a late goal to give Fiorentina victoryagainst Catania at the neutral venue of Rimini. Catania, who had Mauro Minelli sent off, will play all their remaining games away from the Stadio Massimino, which is closed for the remainder of the season.

Internazionale recorded their 16th consecutive victory on Saturday in beating Cagliari 1-0 but they were below their best at San Siro. Their defender Nicolas Burdisso headed the winner from a Zlatan Ibrahimovic cross in the 11th minute.

Second-placed Roma slipped 14 points behind Inter after losing 1-0 at fourth-placed Empoli. Gérard Houllier, manager of Roma's forthcoming Champions League opponents Lyon, was watching from the stands at the Castellani stadium, which was closed to ordinary spectators.

The pick of Saturday's matches was undoubtedly Milan's 4-3 win at Siena, where Ronaldo scored twice in a frantic final nine minutes in which Massimo Maccarone also scored his second goal to bring Siena briefly level at 3-3.

Bayern Munich's captain, Oliver Kahn, has called on his team-mates to show the club more passion and commitment after Saturday's 1-0 defeat by Alemannia Aachen left them 12 points behind the Bundesliga leaders Schalke 04. "Bayern Munich gives so much to the players and it's up to us to give something back," the goalkeeper said. "It's obvious that the least we can do is to fight in every match as if it were a battle against relegation. We need more passion and fighting spirit."

A seventh defeat of the season on Saturday - their second in three matches since the return of Ottmar Hitzfeld as coach - left Bayern in fourth place on 37 points before their daunting Champions League trip to Real Madrid tomorrow.

Archie Thompson scored five times in Melbourne's 6-0 thumping of 10-man Adelaide in yesterday's Australian A-League grand final at Melbourne's Telstra Dome. The 54,436 attendance was the largest ever for an Australian club game.